scholarly journals The anatomy of ‘fake news’: Studying false messages as digital objects

2021 ◽  
pp. 026839622110376
Author(s):  
Ali Khan ◽  
Kathryn Brohman ◽  
Shamel Addas
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Election ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Public Concern ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Conceptual Clarity ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Digital Objects ◽  
Us Presidential Election ◽  
Current Terminology ◽  
Do So

Public concern about ‘fake news’ skyrocketed following the 2016 US presidential election and the Brexit referendum, and has only intensified since then. A burgeoning body of research on the topic is emerging, and conceptual clarity is vital for this research to converge into a cumulative body of knowledge; the purpose of this article is to underline and address some of the conceptual clutter and ambiguities around the concept of fake news and situate it within its social context. To do so, we first discuss the problems with current terminology and conceptualisation, and then draw on recent developments on the ontology of digital objects and their attributes to shift the focus from fake news to false messages, a type of syntactic digital objects comprised of content and structure and characterised by attributes of editability, openness, interactivity, and distributedness. Then we expand this concept further by placing it within a network of actors and digital objects. Our analysis uncovers several areas of research that have been overlooked in the study of fake news.

Proposing a model of social media user interaction with fake news

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhijeet R. Shirsat ◽  
Angel F. González ◽  
Judith J. May
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Us Presidential Election ◽  
Media Environments

Purpose This study aims to understand the allure and danger of fake news in social media environments and propose a theoretical model of the phenomenon. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative research study used the uses and gratifications theory (UGT) approach to analyze how and why people used social media during the 2016 US presidential election. Findings The thematic analysis revealed people were gratified after using social media to connect with friends and family and to gather and share information and after using it as a vehicle of expression. Participants found a significant number of fake news stories on social media during the 2016 US presidential election. Participants tried to differentiate between fake news and real news using fact-checking websites and news sources and interacted with the social media users who posted fake news and became part of the echo chamber. Behaviors like these emerged in the analysis that could not be completely explained by UGT and required further exploration which resulted in a model that became the core of this study. Research limitations/implications This is a small-scale exploratory study with eight diverse participants, findings should not be generalized to larger populations. Time-specific self-reporting of information from social media and fake news during the 2016 US presidential election. Upgrading public policies related to social media is recommended in the study, contributing to burgeoning policy discussions and provides recommendations for both purveyors of social media and public policymakers. Practical implications Upgrade in public policies related to social media is recommended in the study and contributes to burgeoning policy discussions and provides recommendations for both purveyors of social media and public policymakers. Social implications Social media users are spending increased time on their preferred platforms. This study increases the understanding of the nature, function and transformation of virtual social media environments and their effects on real individuals, cultures and societies.What is original/of value about the paper?This exploratory study establishes the foundation on which to expand research in the area of social media use and fake news. Originality/value This exploratory study establishes the foundation to expand research in the area of social media use and fake news.

Global 'fake news' fight to focus on online platforms

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Online Advertising ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Content Type ◽  
European Elections ◽  
The Us ◽  
Perverse Incentives ◽  
Us Presidential Election ◽  
Online Traffic ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Do So

Significance Fake news is not a new phenomenon, but it has burgeoned since the emergence of social media. The issue has taken centre stage since 2016 because of reports that Russia interfered in the US presidential election through fake news and disinformation campaigns, and concern that it will do so in Europe’s upcoming elections. Impacts Public pressure to respond to fake news is likely to continue amid forthcoming European elections. Regulation may turn to the economics of online advertising to stifle fake news that aims to attract online traffic. Greater attention to the structure of online advertising could shed light on perverse incentives that encourage fake news.

The narrative that wasn’t: what passes for discourse in the age of Trump

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-241
Author(s):  
Emily R Anderson
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Political Narratives ◽  
Us Presidential Election ◽  
Discursive Power

This article considers political discourse and the role it played in the 2016 US presidential election while paying particular attention to its construction of narrative. Foucault’s understanding of discourse and power frames the argument that Donald Trump successfully abandoned political narratives. Instead, he often used idiosyncratic language, instances in which the surface of a statement outshines its content. These normally appear in Trump’s tweets and culminate in his invective against the ‘fake news’ media. In order to respond to Trump, his interlocutors must posit a premise and then refute it; in even granting that there is a premise, one must take Trump on his own terms. Trump thus disrupts the direction of traditional discursive power.

scholarly journals The agenda of disinformation: "fake news" and membership categorization analysis in the 2018 Brazilian presidential elections

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 474-495
Author(s):  
Mônica Chaves ◽  
Adriana Braga
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Presidential Elections ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Redes Sociales ◽  
Membership Categorization Analysis ◽  
Membership Categorization ◽  
Fact Checking ◽  
Do So

One of the main aspects of public debate in Brazil in the period that preceded the 2018 presidential elections was the dissemination of false stories via social media and messaging apps. Disinformation, misinformation, and mal-information – phenomena that comprehend elements such as wrongful, out of context, distorted and fabricated information, among others – were a major concern in the election, highlighted by the number of false stories debunked by independent fact-checkers. In the 20-day period between the two rounds of the presidential election, six fact-checking websites posted 228 verifications of false stories disseminated on social media and/or messaging apps, covering a range of about 132 different topics. This article aims to analyze the categorizations enunciated in their discourses. In order to do so, the methodological perspective utilized was the Membership Categorization Analysis, affiliated with the tradition of Ethnomethodology.A disseminação de histórias falsas em aplicativos de mensagens e redes sociais da internet foi um dos elementos centrais da conversação civil no Brasil no período que antecedeu as eleições presidenciais brasileiras em 2018. A preocupação com a disseminação da desinformação – fenômeno que se compõe, entre outros elementos, por informações erradas, descontextualizadas, distorcidas ou falsificadas – se refletiu na quantidade de histórias falsas verificadas e desmentidas por agências independentes de checagens de fatos. No período de 20 dias entre as votações de primeiro e segundo turnos das eleições, as seis principais agências do país publicaram 228 verificações de histórias falsas disseminadas em redes sociais da internet ou aplicativos de troca mensagens, referentes a 132 diferentes pautas. Neste estudo foram analisadas as categorizações enunciadas nos discursos dessas histórias falsas, com a utilização da Análise de Categorização de Pertencimento (ACP), ferramenta teórico-metodológica de origem na Etnometodologia.La propagación de historias falsas en servicios de mensajería instantánea y redes sociales de Internet fue uno de los elementos centrales de las conversaciones civiles en Brasil durante el periodo previo a las elecciones presidenciales brasileñas en 2018. La preocupación con la diseminación de la desinformación – fenómeno compuesto por informaciones erróneas, descontextualizadas, distorsionadas o falsificadas, entre otros elementos – fue visible en la cantidad de historias falsas verificadas y refutadas por organizaciones de fact-checking. En el período de 20 días entre las votaciones de la primera y segunda vuelta de las elecciones, las seis principales fact-checkers del país publicaron 228 verificaciones de historias falsas difundidas en redes sociales de internet o servicios de mensajería instantánea, relativas a 132 pautas diferentes. Este artículo trata de analizar las categorizaciones enunciadas en los discursos de esas historias falsas con el auxilio del Análisis de Pertenencia Categorial (Membership Categorization Analysis – MCA), herramienta teórico-metodológica que proviene de la Etnometodología.

scholarly journals Measuring the news and its impact on democracy

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (15) ◽  
pp. e1912443118
Author(s):  
Duncan J. Watts ◽  
David M. Rothschild ◽  
Markus Mobius
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Election ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Proper Understanding ◽  
News Organizations ◽  
Us Presidential Election ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Incorrect Information

Since the 2016 US presidential election, the deliberate spread of misinformation online, and on social media in particular, has generated extraordinary concern, in large part because of its potential effects on public opinion, political polarization, and ultimately democratic decision making. Recently, however, a handful of papers have argued that both the prevalence and consumption of “fake news” per se is extremely low compared with other types of news and news-relevant content. Although neither prevalence nor consumption is a direct measure of influence, this work suggests that proper understanding of misinformation and its effects requires a much broader view of the problem, encompassing biased and misleading—but not necessarily factually incorrect—information that is routinely produced or amplified by mainstream news organizations. In this paper, we propose an ambitious collective research agenda to measure the origins, nature, and prevalence of misinformation, broadly construed, as well as its impact on democracy. We also sketch out some illustrative examples of completed, ongoing, or planned research projects that contribute to this agenda.

Fake news on Twitter during the 2016 U.S. presidential election

Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 363 (6425) ◽  
pp. 374-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nir Grinberg ◽  
Kenneth Joseph ◽  
Lisa Friedland ◽  
Briony Swire-Thompson ◽  
David Lazer
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Election ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Public Concern ◽  
Political News ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
News Sources ◽  
News Source ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
Registered Voters

The spread of fake news on social media became a public concern in the United States after the 2016 presidential election. We examined exposure to and sharing of fake news by registered voters on Twitter and found that engagement with fake news sources was extremely concentrated. Only 1% of individuals accounted for 80% of fake news source exposures, and 0.1% accounted for nearly 80% of fake news sources shared. Individuals most likely to engage with fake news sources were conservative leaning, older, and highly engaged with political news. A cluster of fake news sources shared overlapping audiences on the extreme right, but for people across the political spectrum, most political news exposure still came from mainstream media outlets.

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